Iphone & Outlook

10-28-2010, 04:51 PM

I'm thinking of buying the Iphone 4, but I currently use MS Outlook with the GTD addin. I've read quite a few of the posts here on this subject as well as elsewhere. It seems like Exchange is the favoured way to go. I'm on Exchange, but find when I access it through my web browser, it has limited functionality e.g. no Categories with the Tasks. Can anyone speak to this re their experience with Iphone? What about Calendar, Notes, Contacts? Thanks for any possible help.

I'm thinking of buying the Iphone 4, but I currently use MS Outlook with the GTD addin. I've read quite a few of the posts here on this subject as well as elsewhere. It seems like Exchange is the favoured way to go. I'm on Exchange, but find when I access it through my web browser, it has limited functionality e.g. no Categories with the Tasks. Can anyone speak to this re their experience with Iphone? What about Calendar, Notes, Contacts? Thanks for any possible help.

I bought the iPhone 4 and switched to Toodledo for task management. I still use MS Outlook for email and contacts (synced to my iPhone via Exchange server), but it's Toodledo for tasks. This means I also junked my GTD Add-in. Yes, I wasted the money that I paid to Netcentrics, but the iPhone / Toodledo combo has been the best thing ever for me when it comes to task management.

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I used to use Outlook with the iPhone and found the only reliable synch was using iMexchange - reliable but somewhat slow. I went through several months of pain trying to get toodledo to synch reliably with Outlook without success. I found it impossible to trust a system that kept losing items, resulting in me having to manually reconcile my tasks between Toodledo and Outlook at every weekly review.

My present system is Omnifocus on Mac and iPhone, which works faultlessly.

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I'm thinking of buying the Iphone 4, but I currently use MS Outlook with the GTD addin. I've read quite a few of the posts here on this subject as well as elsewhere. It seems like Exchange is the favoured way to go. I'm on Exchange, but find when I access it through my web browser, it has limited functionality e.g. no Categories with the Tasks. Can anyone speak to this re their experience with Iphone? What about Calendar, Notes, Contacts? Thanks for any possible help.

@thehawk9: Exchange Server can sync with the native iPhone mail, calendar and contacts apps over the air via the Activesync module. It doesn't sync tasks because the iPhone does not have a native task management app. Apologies if you already knew this but it wasn't clear from your message if this was understood.

Furthermore, while the iPhone has a native Notes app, Exchange Activesync does not support it, but you can sync local Outlook Notes via iTunes if you wish.

In terms of functionality, Exchange Activesync is rock solid and works well with the native iPhone apps.

But you will have to purchase a 3rd-party iPhone app to handle tasks. And this is where it gets tricky if you want to sync them into Outlook. If like many corporate users it is not mandatory for you to use Outlook Tasks, then you are free to find an alternate solution. This is what I have done - mail and calendar in Outlook/Exchange is mandatory at work for me but I can do what I like in terms of task management.

I went with Toodledo which is a 'cloud-based' (i.e. Internet) solution that is supported by a number of iPhone task management apps. It is quite a flexible solution so can be tailored to suit your own needs and I have found it can be set up to support GTD principles quite well.

Using a cloud-based solution means that you can access it wherever you are, e.g. on the corporate PC at work, on the PC or Mac at home and in your pocket when mobile. I've not ever missed using Outlook tasks - the benefits far outweigh any downside of not using an integrated solution.

If you really want to continue using Outlook tasks then you need to find a way of syncing your iPhone app with it. A number of solutions are available. For example, it is possible to sync Toodledo tasks with Outlook via a third-party utility named Chromatic Dragon. Appigo Todo for the iPhone syncs with Toodledo and also comes with an Outlook sync utility. And imExchange sycns tasks with Exchange. I've not used any of these solutions so I can't speak about their reliability but you should be able to find a solution to sync with Outlook.

Another vendor has just announced an Outlook sync utility for Toodledo - it is named Ceptara. You can find more information about it in this post over at the Toodledo forums: http://www.toodledo.com/forums/7/764...available.html (although again I've never used it so can't speak about its reliability).

Good luck with your search!

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I'm thinking of buying the Iphone 4, but I currently use MS Outlook with the GTD addin. I've read quite a few of the posts here on this subject as well as elsewhere. It seems like Exchange is the favoured way to go. I'm on Exchange, but find when I access it through my web browser, it has limited functionality e.g. no Categories with the Tasks. Can anyone speak to this re their experience with Iphone? What about Calendar, Notes, Contacts? Thanks for any possible help.

After experimenting with Outlook/iPhone combinations for over a year, the past few months I've settled on a solution that has been reliable and quite effective for me. I've never had an issue with losing tasks or creating duplicates, and I've even successfully restored all my tasks a few times as a clean-up process.

I'm in an Outlook environment using Exchange. For tasks, I use the Chromatic Dragon app to sync tasks with the Toodledo service. I have both the ToDo app and the Toodledo app on my iPhone set up to sync with Toodledo. Both have worked fine, so which you choose comes down to personal preference. (I use the Toodledo one.)

I use Outlook with the GTD add-in at work (but the way I use it, I sacrifice much of the functionality, so it's not necessary for this setup to be effective). I still use the "action" drop down to assign contexts to items created from within Outlook, and I like the "Send and Waiting For" options, etc. However, when I'm on my phone or on the Toodledo website, I add the task to a folder (which syncs to an Outlook category), but it doesn't sync back to the GTD add-in Action field. For that reason, I've modified my views to sort tasks by category, and not by the "Action" field.

As for calendar, contacts, and email, the iPhone works with Exchange directly, and does so quite well.

I keep all my notes in Evernote. They have multiple mobile platforms, mac and windows desktop clients, a web site, and an excellent Chrome browser extension. All of these combined allow you create, search for, and edit notes from anywhere.

With this setup, all my notes, contacts, calendar items, and lists are synced without needing to go through iTunes.

-Matt

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If you get iMExchange in the iTunes store, there is a free version that can be used to determine if your IT infrastructure can support it. If it works, then buy the full version which I have found works wonderfully. If not you may need to work with IT to see if they will work with you to get it implemented. I use Outlook with Exchange and the Netcentrics Add-in as my GTD task workflow.

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Wow! This is the first time I've used this forum and I can't believe all the detailed and really helpful posts. What a great forum!
I ended up getting an Ipod Touch 4 as I don't need the phone a whole lot. At any rate, I will study your answers and take a stab at it one way or another and let you know. Thanks to everyone for investing your time in this. I really appreciate it.
Andrew

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If you get iMExchange in the iTunes store, there is a free version that can be used to determine if your IT infrastructure can support it. If it works, then buy the full version which I have found works wonderfully. If not you may need to work with IT to see if they will work with you to get it implemented. I use Outlook with Exchange and the Netcentrics Add-in as my GTD task workflow.

I 2nd that, iMExchange is great, never had any issues.

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I found, as many had said, that the Mail, Contacts and Calendar works with Exchange directly. I've downloaded the IMExchange 2 app and it is working perfectly for Notes & Tasks. So all is well. Thanks again everyone for the help. Much appreciated.